March was the month I took my eye off the ball spend-wise. On the plus side my spending patterns are consistent, on the minus side a busy month meant I relied far too much on purchasing breakfast and lunch on the hoof from the varied eateries around work which doesn’t help with any kind of economy drive.

Household running costs still modest and show a minor decrease – it’s been getting quite a lot warmer, my heat is not on and although my utilities spend is very modest every little helps. It’s also the time of year when there is no spend on council tax/water as we transition from one year to the next. Proportion will increase next month as these kick back in.

Travel costs back to the more usual 5% of my budget.I buy a monthly travel card which covers all my work and most of my personal travel. No travel outside the zones covered by the card in March.

Food and household shopping again fairly consistent 10% of my budget spent on food for me and the moggies.May see modest movement once the growing season kicks in!

The breakfast/lunches out jumped by 2% this month. Still remains one area I need to get to grips with. It all adds up to a significant amount over the month which could be better spent elsewhere!

Home and garden looks a bit low and makes me wonder whether I’ve accounted for everything! Then again I think I only bought some pots, paint and gravel boards so it may be right.

Health and fitness spiked because I paid my PT and bought and few bits of kit.

Entertainment dropped again – no film spend this month!

There was an added bonus this month of a surprise cheque for £1000 from a competition I entered ages ago. This has gone to pay for my holiday in August (10 days in Sicily for a wedding) and the rest is now in savings for the holiday.

April targets

cut back on breakfast and lunches out – both the finances and waistline will benefit

restructure of my finances to enable me to kill the loan and credit card debt faster

dig out paperwork for potential tax refund

sort out some changes with the Land Registry for the registrations for my flat in London and cottage in Wales

double check savings fund for August will cover what we want to do when away (car hire, site visits, eating out etc) now that all travel and accommodation is paid for.

Today I’m off to look at a new allotment and do some work on my current plot and garden while the weather is fine. Update on those later!